Update: Sorry, We’re Closed.

It took thirty-five long days, but on January 25th, President Trump signed, and the Senate and the House passed a bill to temporarily open the government for three weeks. What does this mean? That the 800,000 federal employees affected by the shutdown will finally be able to go back to work and get paid! It also means that lawmakers have three weeks to decide on how much funding will be allocated to border security. If they cannot decide, the government might be shut down again. We’ll keep you posted on what happens!

Posted on 11/11/19

On December 22nd, the US government entered a partial shutdown. What’s a shutdown? Why? Who’s affected by it? So many questions, we know! First, what’s a shutdown? Simply put, it’s when the government can’t agree on a budget and therefore federal departments can’t continue operating. After all, you can’t pay employees if you don’t have approval for how much money you can spend, right? But why did the government shut down in the first place? It all comes down to a wall. Well, we’re not talking about any old wall, but a wall that would act as a physical border between the United States and Mexico. President Trump wants $5.7 billion to build a wall and House Democrats won’t agree to it. Why? Well, President Trump claims that the wall is a matter of national security and will prevent people from illegally entering the United States. House Democrats disagree and think that the wall is not only a waste of money but won’t actually do what President Trump thinks it’ll do. Quite the quandary, we know! So while lawmakers are working on reaching some kind of compromise, 800,000 federal employees are wondering when they’ll receive their next paycheck.

If you could talk to lawmakers and President Trump, what would you suggest as a compromise?

Interesting Fact: The longest US government shutdown lasted twenty-one days. How long will this US government shutdown last?

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